Sixty Minutes
by CBloom2
Summary: A follow up to An Anomoly - probably is best if you read that story first, but I think you can understand this one without reading it. Ends up being a reveal story.


**Thank you so much for all your kind words on the last story. I honestly didn't think I'd managed to merge the two storylines, but all your positive comments made me feel like it went well.**

 **So this is a follow up. I was going to wait to see how it turned out on screen but decided to slip in a short update including the reveal, even though I've already done two reveal stories I think! I hope this is ok. I've made it a one shot of it's own instead of a second chapter to The Anomoly story.**

 **You know by now that I don't own anyone that you recognise.**

 **Sixty Minutes**

"An anomoly?" Cal gasped, "W...what do you mean?"

Ethan noticed the catch in his brother's voice and knowing how he had been over the last week or so he decided that he didn't want to worry him with something that was probably nothing.

"I'm sure it's nothing. You know what these lab people are like - one tiny glitch and it's a major thing."

Cal was shaking his head, "Don't do that," he cried.

"Don't do what?" Ethan looked confused.

"Don't make out that it's nothing," Cal sounded almost panicked, "Tell me..."

"It probably is nothing..." Ethan told him, slightly worried by Cal's reaction.

"I'm your brother, let me be the judge of that," Cal answered.

Ethan sighed as he leaned over and turned on the lamp that sat on the table next to him. Next to the lamp was the letter that he had received earlier, crumpled by the numerous times it had been handled. Ethan picked it up and handed it carefully over to his brother, who began avidly reading it. When he had finished, he looked at the younger man, "It doesn't say what it is..."

"Look at the blood group," he pointed out.

Cal took a deep breath as he did as Ethan asked. The flat was eerily quiet as Cal read the exact same note that had been on his paternity test result, "Yes...so..."

"My blood group is O Cal - mum's was AB..." Ethan's voice began to rise, "There are only two possibilities regarding this - either the lab got it wrong, or our mum wasn't MY mum," he cried, his eyes filling with tears, "We might not even be brothers," he whispered sadly as one tear trickled down his face.

"We are brothers," Cal told him.

"How can you know? I'm going to get another test tomorrow. I'm going to make sure that they don't make any mistakes..."

Cal swallowed hard, he knew that the time had come to tell Ethan everything that he knew, "You don't need to Eth...the test is right."

"What do you mean? How do you know?"

"On the paternity test it said the same for me. I knew it couldn't be right so I..."

"Cal, what did you do?" Ethan started to look anxious.

"I did a little research..." Cal began.

"What did you find?" Ethan wasn't sure he wanted to know.

Cal glanced at his brother, seeing the uncertainty on his face. He shot to his feet and began pacing. Seeing his brothers reaction only served to increase Ethan's unease.

"Cal...tell me...am I adopted?"

Oh god, he'd said it - Cal felt sick. He halted his pacing, running a shaking hand over his face, "We both are," left his mouth without him thinking about it.

Ethan was thankful that he was sitting down as he suddenly felt slightly light headed, "We're both adopted? Does that mean...?"

"We are definitely brothers...sorry..." Cal tried to make the situation lighter.

Ethan shook his head slightly, "Thank god...I can't imagine my life without you."

Cal felt a lump form in his throat at his brother's admission, "Did I just say that out loud?" Ethan smirked a little.

Cal burst out laughing, causing Ethan's smile to increase, "Yes you did little brother, there's no coming back from it now!"

They both laughed for a few more seconds until Ethan's face once more became serious and Cal knew that the questions were coming.

"So, how long have you known about all this?"

Cal slumped down in the chair, suddenly finding the floor quite interesting. Ethan sucked in a deep breath, "This is what's been wrong with you lately - not Matilda...this..."

"Partly Matilda...but..."

"Why didn't you just tell me Cal? I'm your brother - you are supposed to be able to talk to me," Ethan looked hurt and annoyed at the same time.

"First of all, I couldn't believe it," Cal told him honestly, "Then I panicked because I thought that you might not be my brother, and to be quite honest, I didn't want to hear that...then I thought that I needed to find out as much information as possible to answer the questions that I knew you would have."

"So how did you find out that we were definitely brothers?" Ethan watched his brother as he toyed with telling Ethan the truth, "Tell me the truth now Cal."

Cal smirked a little at how well his younger brother could read him, "I found our birth mother...well Charlie found her..."

"Charlie? Hang on - Charlie knew...before me?" Ethan looked shocked.

The older man hung his head, "He was there when I noticed the blood group on the paternity test...I had to tell someone..."

"You could've told me," Ethan almost whispered.

"I know, and I am sorry I didn't. I wish I had, it would have been a lot easier..."

"So you spoke to our mother," Ethan felt wrong saying 'mother' once more. He thought that their mother had already died and now...now they had another mother, "What did she have to say?"

Cal paled at his question - was this the time to tell him? He knew that he had to - but now, when he had just found out about the adoption, "Did you ask her why she gave us up?"

"She couldn't look after us. Apparently our father - her husband left her not long after you were born and she couldn't cope. I'm not quite sure how she met mum yet, but she said that she had been willing to adopt both of us, which is what she wanted because she wanted to keep us together."

"Our other dad was hardly around and mum managed to bring us up so how come she couldn't? I'm sure we weren't that hard to manage," Cal could see the cogs turning in Ethan's head, trying to make sense of it all.

Cal knew that it was now or never but he didn't know if he could bring himself to tell his brother about her illness, would it be to much for him? He watched the younger man for a few seconds as he battled with all the emotions and thoughts that were bombarding the normally calm and collected doctor.

"She's ill Ethan," his mouth opened again seemingly of it's own accord. Ethan's head shot up, his gaze landing on his brother.

"Ill? What exactly do you mean by ill?" he demanded.

"I mean that she has been ill for a long time," Cal replied being as vague as possible.

"Cal, stop going around the houses - what is wrong with her?" Ethan was staring at him now, making him squirm under his scrutiny.

"Huntingtons," he whispered as his voice cracked.

"I'm sorry, I thought I heard you say Huntingtons - the degenerative disease with no cure that can be passed down the generations..."

Cal dropped his head. He couldn't bear to see the look of horror on his brother's face.

This time Ethan jumped to his feet and began pacing. As he took the frantic steps up and down the living room, Cal could hear him mumbling to himself, even though he couldn't hear what he was actually saying. The uncomfortable silence lasted about five minutes until Ethan finally exploded, but not in the way that Cal was expecting, "Why didn't you tell me all this when you found out Caleb?" Ethan's voice seemed steady - no hint of anger or hysteria in it.

"There was never a right time to tell you Ethan. I tried a couple of times, but other things got in the way. And I was scared - I am still scared that..."

"One of us may have it," Ethan stated calmly, as Cal nodded.

Ethan dragged in a deep and hopefully calming breath, " So our 'father' left her because he couldn't cope with her illness I'm assuming," he began to think out loud, as Cal nodded.

A thought suddenly crossed Ethan's mind, "Have you seen her?"

"Yes, I saw her on Christmas Eve," Cal told him.

"And you've kept this to yourself all through Christmas and the New Year? Oh Cal, that must have been so hard for you. It all makes sense now, the moods, the drinking, the recklessness - your coping mechanism. If you'd just told me in the first place, I could've help you carry the burden," Ethan told him.

Cal bit his lip as he felt tears threaten to overflow, "Ethan don't be calm and accepting - don't be trying to look after me and my feelings - I'm the big brother..."

"Yes but that doesn't mean that you have to protect me."  
"That's exactly what it means Ethan - and that's what I've been trying to do - badly I admit, but I'm trying," Cal's voice kept cracking with emotion.

"Cal, I appreciate that you were doing what you thought was best, but this is not something you can deal with on your own - oh wait, you weren't actually on your own..." Ethan tried hard to keep the bitterness out of his voice, but the older man heard a trace.

"So, what next? Where do we go from here?" Ethan asked, as practical as ever.

"I hadn't thought of anything past telling you," Cal told him honestly.

"I suppose we'll need to have some tests done," Ethan mused.

"Why? What's the point? There's nothing we can do about it," Cal insisted, the old feeling of denial rearing it's ugly head once more.

"No Caleb, we can't bury our head in the sand over this. I think we need to know - we may need to make plans, decisions that affect both our futures..." Ethan told him thoughtfully.

Cal was shaking his head, "No, no, no, I can't do it," he cried as he jumped to his feet once more and disappeared into the kitchen.

Ethan sighed deeply as he hunched forward with his elbows on his knees, cradling his head, which was now starting to pound with anxiety. He massaged his temples in the vain hope of rubbing it away, glancing at the clock as he did so. He'd only been back home a hour. In a mere sixty minutes, his life had changed completely. He could hear Cal crashing about in the kitchen, opening and closing cupboard doors. He couldn't believe that Cal had kept this from him for so long - that was so out of character for his normally very talkative brother. But having Matilda had changed the older man, for the better. Ethan saw the man that he really was. He proved that he could actually put someone else before himself. But this, this was a whole new ball game. Not only finding out they were adopted, but that their mother had an incurable illness, on top of losing baby Matilda...Ethan was surprised that Cal only got drunk to cope. He leaned forward once more, this time closing his eyes while he rubbed his temples. Suddenly, he heard the clunk of a glass on the table. He cracked open his eyes and saw a glass, "Whiskey - good for shock," Cal told him as he downed his own. Ethan blinked then picked it up and downed it in one gulp, making his eyes water. After that, Cal placed a glass of water and some pain killers on the table, "Not because I expect you to be hungover, but I can see the headache lines on your forhead."

"Humph, I'm not sure whether to be touched that you noticed or cross because you're talking about lines on my face!"

Cal chuckled as he watched his little brother swallow the tablets, then close his eyes and slump back into the sofa.

"Why didn't she tell us?" Ethan asked suddenly as his eyes shot open, "Why didn't she at least tell mum?"

"Apparently, she tried to. She said that she wrote some letters, but never sent them, she tried to phone, but every time she did, she bottled it and put the phone down. She thought that we would be better off not knowing...maybe she was right."

"Well, that's not an option now is it?" Ethan spat, then took a deep breath to steady his nerves, "We need to speak to Connie and arrange some tests...I'm sorry Cal, but I need to know."

Cal looked at his determined little brother, not having expected anything less from him. He knew that once he knew about it that he wouldn't settle until the tests had been done.

"Ok, we'll arrange it...but what if..." Cal couldn't go on.

"Don't start with the 'what ifs'," Ethan insisted, "We get the tests done and get the results are before we start with 'what if' - deal?"

Cal shook his head slightly, "You never cease to amaze me Ethan, how can you be so calm and together about all this?"

"Oh believe me, I'm anything but calm, but throwing a fit about it will not make it go away. It's something we have to deal with...and deal with it we will...together!"

Cal smiled slightly as he nodded his head, "Yeah, together."

 **So that's it. Not sure I can say that that's the last reveal story - but I wanted to have a story where Ethan was actually quite calm and mature about what was going on, even though on the inside he was all over the place. Hope you liked it.**


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